Anne-Marie Kermarrec is a researcher, professor, and CEO in digital technology. She is head of research at INRIA, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, recipient of the Michel Montpetit Prize of the Académie des sciences, winner of the Google Focused Award and Association for Computing Machinery fellow. She is winner of the INRIA-Académie des sciences-Dassault Systems innovation prize and gold-level winner of the “Promising Female Head of Business” trophy awarded by Women of the Economy.
“I’ve been doing research in computer science for more than twenty years: first at universities (Rennes or Amsterdam) and in a research institute (INRIA), then in a commercial laboratory in the U.K. (Microsoft Research), and today at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. I have also rubbed shoulders, as an entrepreneur in Deeptech, with investors, supporters, incubators, and start-ups of all stripes.
Having worked for a long time in a male-dominated environment, I unfortunately no longer even notice the fact that I am often one of the rare women in a group; I have learned to manage young geeks, to handle male egos of all sorts.
I keep being told that things are changing, that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that it takes time. Those who know me know that impatience is my most serious defect. What I wish is for the current desire to change things to succeed in fashioning a world in which young girls will be as attracted to computer science as they are to medicine, and will find a legitimate presence in it. And quickly.” [A.-M. K.]